September 14, 2009

crespelle indiane vegane / vegan Indian dosas

For this month's Daring Cooks challenge, Debyi of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen! has chosen Indian Dosas (Vegan Style) from the cookbook reFresh: Contemporary Vegan Recipes From the Award Winning Fresh Restaurants by Ruth Tal. You can find the recipe for Indian Dosas, Curried Garbanzo Filling and Coconut Curry Sauce here.

Although I told myself I would not prepare the recipe a day or two before the post was due, that is once again what happened. It all went well, except the photo-taking part. As a result, I don't have an image of the assembled dosas to share. I will rely on your imagination to make up for that.

I followed the given recipe to make the batter (pastella) for dosas, using soy milk (latte di soia). I rarely make pancakes, but my lack of experience was not a problem: the batter was easy to work with and only one dosa was badly injured when I flipped it.

Debyi allowed us free rein in terms of filling and sauce, the only requirement being to keep them both vegan. I decided to improvise using available ingredients. I started with half a pound of fagioli borlotti freschi (fresh cranberry beans, weighed after being shelled — more on these in an upcoming post). I cooked the beans in enough water to cover them by an inch, together with three slices of an onion, a bay leaf, a smashed garlic clove and a couple of parsley sprigs. Once the beans were ready, I turned off the heat and let them cool, then removed the aromatics and drained them. Finally, I seasoned them with some sea salt.

In the meantime, I started to slow-roast a pound of San Marzano-like tomatoes (pomodori). The inspiration here came from this recipe by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. I cut the tomatoes by half and seasoned them with a mix of finely chopped fresh herbs (winter savory, marjoram and parsley) and a bit of salt. I then placed them, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat and baked them at 250 F for five hours without turning them. When they were cool, I slipped off the skin and spooned them in a bowl, where I mashed them with a fork. Finally, I added the beans, mixed well and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

For the topping, I set my eyes on some yellow heirloom tomatoes I had, compliments of my CSA box, and decided to make a simple sauce. Last year, I learned to use my grater to quickly turn fresh tomatoes into crushed tomatoes using this tecnique, and that is what I did. In a small saucepan, I warmed up a bit of olive oil, then added two garlic cloves, minced, and a few leaves of pineapple sage (salvia ananas), slivered. When they became fragrant, I added the crushed tomatoes and cooked, uncovered, for 10 minutes, then adjusted the salt.

While I prepared the dosas, I warmed up the bean filling and tomato topping and then served them all together. The dish was well received by the people around the table. Looking back, I feel that, once again, in preparing a dish from another culinary tradition, I gave it a decidedly Italian twist.

I am sure you will find a lot of photographs to admire, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thanks to Debyi for a very nice challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

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crespelle indiane vegane / vegan Indian dosas

For this month's Daring Cooks challenge, Debyi of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen! has chosen Indian Dosas (Vegan Style) from the cookbook reFresh: Contemporary Vegan Recipes From the Award Winning Fresh Restaurants by Ruth Tal. You can find the recipe for Indian Dosas, Curried Garbanzo Filling and Coconut Curry Sauce here.

Although I told myself I would not prepare the recipe a day or two before the post was due, that is once again what happened. It all went well, except the photo-taking part. As a result, I don't have an image of the assembled dosas to share. I will rely on your imagination to make up for that.

I followed the given recipe to make the batter (pastella) for dosas, using soy milk (latte di soia). I rarely make pancakes, but my lack of experience was not a problem: the batter was easy to work with and only one dosa was badly injured when I flipped it.

Debyi allowed us free rein in terms of filling and sauce, the only requirement being to keep them both vegan. I decided to improvise using available ingredients. I started with half a pound of fagioli borlotti freschi (fresh cranberry beans, weighed after being shelled — more on these in an upcoming post). I cooked the beans in enough water to cover them by an inch, together with three slices of an onion, a bay leaf, a smashed garlic clove and a couple of parsley sprigs. Once the beans were ready, I turned off the heat and let them cool, then removed the aromatics and drained them. Finally, I seasoned them with some sea salt.

In the meantime, I started to slow-roast a pound of San Marzano-like tomatoes (pomodori). The inspiration here came from this recipe by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. I cut the tomatoes by half and seasoned them with a mix of finely chopped fresh herbs (winter savory, marjoram and parsley) and a bit of salt. I then placed them, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat and baked them at 250 F for five hours without turning them. When they were cool, I slipped off the skin and spooned them in a bowl, where I mashed them with a fork. Finally, I added the beans, mixed well and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

For the topping, I set my eyes on some yellow heirloom tomatoes I had, compliments of my CSA box, and decided to make a simple sauce. Last year, I learned to use my grater to quickly turn fresh tomatoes into crushed tomatoes using this tecnique, and that is what I did. In a small saucepan, I warmed up a bit of olive oil, then added two garlic cloves, minced, and a few leaves of pineapple sage (salvia ananas), slivered. When they became fragrant, I added the crushed tomatoes and cooked, uncovered, for 10 minutes, then adjusted the salt.

While I prepared the dosas, I warmed up the bean filling and tomato topping and then served them all together. The dish was well received by the people around the table. Looking back, I feel that, once again, in preparing a dish from another culinary tradition, I gave it a decidedly Italian twist.

I am sure you will find a lot of photographs to admire, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thanks to Debyi for a very nice challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

To use any of the photographs published in the blog permission must be obtained from Simona
No food was (nor will ever be) discarded in the process of taking the photographs, i.e., everything was consumed either immediately or in due time